4.9 A Man Of His Word

A Man Of His Word is the ninth episode of Season 4 of Alias and the 75th episode overall. While Nadia is in a coma, Sark is taken into APO to help them infiltrate Cadmus Revolutionary Front and retrieve the bomb, but in return he demands to see Lauren's corpse and that Vaughn opens her coffin for him. Nadia may be the only person with the intel they need to intercept the bomb, so Jack is forced to prematurely wake Nadia from her coma, endangering her life, which doesn't please Sloane when he finds out.

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Sloane and Sydney watch over the injured Nadia, who remains stable in a medically-induced coma. Sydney tells him that Anna has the bomb.

The bomb

Sark is brought before Sloane, who asks him to retrieve that bomb. According to Sark, Ushek Sanko, the leader of the CRF, will take possession of the bomb from Anna Espinosa. Sark agrees to retrieve the bomb on the condition that he be allowed to view Lauren Reed's body - and that Vaughn opens the coffin.

Lauren's body is stored in a CIA mortuary lest her death become public knowledge. Vaughn opens the lid. Sark, studying her bullet wounds, deduces that Vaughn killed her.

Sloane tells Sydney that, according to Rambaldi, Nadia can't die by Anna's hand. Anna sneaks into the hospital to assassinate Nadia, but Sloane secretly moved her to a different room. Sydney gives chase but Anna escapes through a window, using a firehose to break her fall.

Nadia is moved to the CIA sickbay. Sloane tells Jack to eliminate Anna. Marshall observing the security camera tape of Karg's confession to Nadia, sees Anna observing from the shadows - which explains why she wants Nadia dead.

Vaughn and Sydney take Sark to meet Sanko at a club in Venice. Sydney impersonates Lauren in order to accompany Sark. She kisses Sark (biting him on the lip) to titillate Sanko. Before Sanko can reveal any info, Anna shoots and kills him. Sydney handcuffs Sark to a railing while she and Vaughn look for Anna, who frees Sark and extracts the tracking device/explosive from his neck.

Over dinner, Anna tells Sark that she killed Sanko because he wouldn't pay her enough for the bomb. She wants to contact a buyer, Michele Gignon, an arms dealer with whom Sark has a relationship, and suggests they form a partnership.

Jack makes the risky decision to inject Nadia with a counter-agent, waking her from the coma. He gleans the necessary info from her and passes it to Sydney. The doctor recognizes the drug in Nadia's system and tells Sloane.

When Sark and Anna meet Michele in Venice, Sydney and Vaughn make their move. Vaughn recovers the bomb. Sark turns on Anna, and leaves her to Sydney. They have another hand-to-hand showdown. This time, Sydney slaps the cuffs on her, pistol-whipping her for good measure. Sark, however, escapes.

An angry Sloane confronts Jack about forcibly waking her from the coma. Jack quotes Sloane, saying his orders were to "to do what it takes." He also refers to the prophecy, saying it wasn't Nadia's time. Nonetheless, Sloane says that Jack should have told him he put his daughter at risk. Jack says Sloane puts Sydney at risk every day. Their relationship appears severely damaged.

Goof: Sark pulls the zipper on Lauren's body bag down past her chest to see the bullet holes. When Vaughan looks at Lauren the zipper is mid way down her neck.

When Sark sees Lauren's bullet-riddled body, he seems surprised when he figures out Vaughn was responsible. But in the previous episode, A Man Of His Word, he says, "Was it the infidelity or the espionage that motivated you to kill the woman I loved?"

Before the first air of this episode in Brazil, The Solution was re-aired. This was an earlier episode where Sark escapes from handcuffs.

This is the second and last episode to feature Sark this season, making it his fewest number of appearances in any season. He appears in 5 episodes of season one, 15 episodes of season two, 20 in season three and 4 in season five.

Last episode that Messlia George is in for the series.

A Man Of Word was originally intended to be the eighth episode of season 4.

Julian Sark:(to Sloane about his directorship at APO) Four years ago if I'm not mistaken, you fooled a small army into thinking they worked for the CIA, when in fact they were working for you. How you convinced the US government into offering you the real thing, is a story I'm just dying to hear.